(Ottawa) Amira Elghawaby fears that the war between Israel and Hamas will fuel more hatred towards Muslims. Canada’s special representative responsible for combating Islamophobia has issued a statement for the first time since the start of the conflict. His silence had raised eyebrows.
“These events have touched me personally, especially the latest attack on the Gaza hospital and the preventable humanitarian tragedy that is unfolding,” she wrote in a short statement published Wednesday evening on the social network .
The leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, had said in a press briefing earlier this week that Mme Elghawaby “would have people in her ancestry who were there in 1948 and she might have a desire to stay away from that debate.”
This information has not been confirmed either by Mme Elghawaby nor by the Department of Canadian Heritage, to whom The Press had sent questions earlier this week.
“Currently, there is a fear of a resurgence of Islamophobia which has disturbing echoes of the past,” she notes, referring to the “deep trauma” experienced by Muslims and Arabs after the 9/11 attacks. September 2011 in the United States. They “felt collectively blamed, stereotyped and victims of racial profiling,” she points out.
“We had to demonstrate our loyalty and were pressured to condemn actions unrelated to our communities,” she continues. We have been silenced when we expressed our views on human rights and dignity.
“Muslim communities tell me that we cannot let the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reopen such a painful chapter. »
She is committed to defending “the interests of Muslims in Canada” and recalls that her role is to advise the government on how to fight “prejudice, discrimination and hatred” towards these communities.
“Together, we can face the danger of the rise of Islamophobia and all other forms of hatred,” she concludes.
Stéphane Gobeil, special advisor to Quebec Prime Minister François Legault, noted on X that the statement made no mention of Israeli victims of Hamas. He also criticized his silence following these attacks perpetrated on October 7.
The man who was then Canada’s special envoy for preserving the memory of the Holocaust and the fight against anti-Semitism had signed an open letter in the Globe and Mail the same day. Irwin Cotler denounced Hamas terrorism and recognized that Palestinian civilians are also its victims.
“They suffer daily under this repressive and authoritarian regime,” he wrote, taking care to specify that “Hamas’s anti-Semitic and genocidal agenda” did not represent the Palestinians.
Mr. Cotler handed over his position on Monday to Deborah Lyons, who served as Canada’s ambassador to Israel from 2016 to 2020.
The appointment of Amira Elghawaby caused controversy last winter. The one who was previously a columnist for the Toronto Star had already written that the “majority of Quebecers” seemed “influenced by anti-Muslim sentiment” due to the Law on State Secularism. These comments sparked an outcry both in Quebec and in Ottawa and she had to apologize.